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A reissue Religion in Secular Society (1966) by Bryan Wilson (1926-2004), a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford for thirty years and one of the leading sociologists of religion of the twentieth century.

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Fifty years after its publication, Bryan Wilson´s Religion in Secular Society (1966) remains a seminal work. It is one of the clearest articulations of the secularization thesis: the claim that modernizations brings with it fundamental changes in the nature and status of religion. For Wilson, secularization refers to the fact that religion has lost influence at the societal, the institutional, and the individual level. Individual secularization is about the
loss of authority of the Churches to define what people should believe, practise and accept as moral principles guiding their lives. In other words, individual piety may still persist, however, if it develops independently of religious authorities, then it is an indication of individual secularization. Wilson
stresses that the consequences of the process of societalization in modern societies and on this basis he formulated his thesis that secularization is linked to the decline of community and is a concomitant of societalization. Revised and updated, Steve Bruce builds on Wilson´s work by noting the changes in religious culture of the UK and US, in an appendix on major changes since the 1960s. Bruce also provides a critical response to the core ideas of Religion in Secular
Society.

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Bruce´s editing and updating of Wilson´s work proves helpful in increasing readability and better conveying the utility of Wilson´s text for a younger audience. This new edition and its relevance for the US´s current religious landscape couldn´t be more timely. In Appendix 2 Bruce provides updates to what has changed since 1966, when Wilson´s text was original published, in terms of politics, policy, modes of identification, economic factors, and societal changes. Overall, I have to commend Bruce for clarifying Wilson´s position and providing much needed updates to this text. This new edition is one that should be kept in conversation as future religious landscape data becomes available. Sean Dixon, Reading Religion

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Bryan R. Wilson, (1926 - 2004), was Reader Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Oxford and President of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (1971). He became a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1963.

Steve Bruce is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Aberdeen. His previous publications include Secularization: In Defence of an Unfashionable Theory (2013), Paisley: Religion and Politics in Northern Ireland (2007), Sociology: A Very Short Introduction (2000), and Choice and Religion: A Critique of Rational Choice Theory (OUP, 1999).

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